The Oppo Find N2 Flip, the Chinese brand’s first folding smartphone in clamshell format, is being emulated by Samsung. According to an analyst, the South Korean manufacturer will take inspiration from the latter for the external screen and hinge of its upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 5.
Samsung knows how to draw inspiration from those who endanger its market. According to analyst Ross YoungThe South Korean manufacturer is going to enlarge the external screen of the fifth generation of its folding smartphone in clamshell format: the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
As I told my Super Followers yesterday, there are a couple of big changes to the Z Flip 5… pic.twitter.com/rEcD2DvaWw
—Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) December 1, 2022
Ross Young, specialist in display production lines, says that the next Galaxy Z Flip will be equipped with a small screen of more than 3 inches, compared to the current 1.9 inches. If the information has been advanced since December by the analyst, it has just been corroborated by the Ice Universe leaker, on Monday, February 20. A choice that, according to him, would be a direct response to its direct competitor in this category: the Oppo Find N2 Flip.
An external screen larger than 3 inches
Launched in China in December 2022 (and available on the French market on February 27), this smartphone from the manufacturer Oppo is the brand’s first in Flip format. And yet, despite a design inspired by Samsung, the Chinese brand produced a reliable, solid, efficient and balanced phone from its first attempt.
Even to the point of innovating where Samsung had not concentrated its efforts with an external 3.26-inch screen in portrait format, compared to the less than 2-inches horizontally of the Galaxy Z Flip 4. The industrial choice mentioned by Ross Young seems, well, direct. response to this unexpected competitor. What’s more, if the analyst does not specify the exact size of this new external screen, the Ice Universe filter claims that it will be larger than the Find N2 Flip.
The clues have appeared.
the first leak
I can safely say that the external screen of the Galaxy Z Flip5 is larger than the external screen of the OPPO Find N2 Flip. pic.twitter.com/E9HjUeW2ZR— Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) February 20, 2023
Words backed up in another more recent tweet where he shares an idea of what the external screen of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 would look like. However, its representation remains a very basic assembly that should not be taken literally.
It is very likely that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 will have this design. I’m doing more research… pic.twitter.com/1bVYOgmC0H
— Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) February 22, 2023
A hinge that marks less
Oppo was inspired by Samsung, which in turn is inspired by Oppo… and the South Korean manufacturer doesn’t stop there. Other information provided by Ross Young: Samsung should also revise the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s hinge design for “reduce crease visibility” from the screen.
Another lesson learned from Oppo’s compact folding smartphone, whose screen fold leaves only a barely visible mark on the open display.
Copy, yes, but not halfway
If we are delighted to see two competitors chasing each other to always offer the best to consumers, we hope that this also applies at the software level. Despite Oppo’s good decisions on the Find N2 Flip, its ColorsOS interface – which is still excellent – does not take full advantage of the potential of this format.
We thought in particular of the presence of an external screen to access options without having to open the phone, and the possibility of folding the phone 90 degrees to split the internal screen in two. Two aspects in which Samsung’s One UI interface seems to have a little more control after four generations of smartphones in this format. So here’s hoping Oppo can look to its neighbor for its next Flip model.
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